Brentford legend Kevin O'Connor has been a great help to current Bees head coach Dean Smith.

The current B team boss has been with the club for nearly two decades and when Smith took over at Griffin Park in November 2015, he consulted with O'Connor.

'King Kev's' long service for the Bees, where he made 501 appearances for the club, saw him win the Sir Tom Finney award at the EFL Awards on Sunday night and Smith believes he is fully deserving of the gong.

The head coach said: “First of all, he deserves the recognition. He's a one club man and a true one club man. I played against him and half knew him.

“One of the things you first feel when you meet him is the warmth he's got and he's a humble man.

“For me, he was very helpful. Every club has it's own characteristics.

“Someone has been there through an awful lot, there is nobody better to pick the brains of to find out the characteristics and he's been very helpful to myself and Richard.”

Smith believes that the young players in the Brentford B side are lucky to have someone like O'Connor in charge.

He added: “I never played with him but everyone has told me his professionalism is second to none. If the players are listening to him, they've got nobody better to listen to. He's developing into a very good coach at the moment.”